The GTC I have at my shop had a crack in the bumper the owner wanted me to see about getting fixed. The bumpers were rechromed many years ago, and they all looked pretty good, except for this one problem.

The problem with chrome is any repair requires stripping all the chrome off and starting over. I had the bumper stripped to get a better idea of the problem.

After I removed the bumper, stripped the bumperettes, and the reverse lights, I had my local plater strip the bumper to see what was the problem. The crack can still be seen after the upper layers of chromium and nickel were removed but something else was happening on the other side of the bumper.

The mounting bracket of the bumper was originally spot welded and two of the welds had broken. The sandwiched metal trapped some moisture and started to rust. The rust expanded and swelled up between the steel and deformed the bumper skin, cracking the chrome. We could simply smooth out the bumper and replate it, but the rust will swell again and probably crack in the same place in the future. The solution is to cut the bracket out to expose the rust, clean up the steel, and weld it back together. Although my plater is very good, he was honest enough to admit this job was pushing his abilities as a metal fabricator. I appreciated his candor, and will be sending this bumper to another shop that can handle this work. I would rather have it done right, than have this irreplaceable part destroyed.